Gamification Definition | What is Gamification and Its Scope for Business

Gamification Definition | What is Gamification? It consists of transposing the motivation techniques of the game into a non-playful field, such as work, businesses, etc. These techniques include setting goals to accomplish a mission, rewarding users, engaging them in competition, encouraging them to collaborate as a team, giving them statuses that will elevate them in the eyes of others, and, of course, points.

Gamification Definition | What is Gamification

More than 2,000 years ago, our Lydian ancestors had recourse to gambling to fight famine and save their people. What did they do? While a great famine affected Lydia, the Lydian’s invented games, bones, dice, balls and other forms of games. This is what they did with their inventions to forget hunger. They played alternately for a whole day to distract and forget the hunger that assailed them and the next day they ate instead of playing.

We often talk of gambling as an activity of pure pleasure, but this example of the Lydian’s shows us that gambling can assume another meaning. This highlights the potential of the game in our daily lives. It was by trying to exploit this potential that airlines launched loyalty programs in the early 1980’s.

Let’s make a leap of several thousand years. We are in 1981 and United Air Lines is launching its first Advantage program. Flying with this company allowed users to earn points that they could exchange for free flights and trips to heavenly islands. But these earned points also give status to the travelers, who are thus outclassed. Airline loyalty programs are a very good definition of gamification as they use it to build customer loyalty and encourage consumers to travel, in this case. The airlines have relied on several traditional elements of the game to increase the user experience:

• The points: they measure the activity of the traveler, the more he travels, and the more he earns points, the more he gains experience and gains the rewards.
• The rewards: from a certain threshold, the points earned can be redeemed against rewards. This will therefore incite the traveler to travel more to earn more rewards.
• The status: points earned not only allow earning rewards; they also confer status to the traveler. This status reflects the experience of the traveler and corresponds to the level of the traveler in the game. The more experienced a traveler, the higher his status, the more access he has to benefits.
• The competition and the community: the fact that some users traveling many have access to benefits will tempt other travelers to reach their level or even exceed them. They will also create a community by exchanging advice to always have more benefits.

These loyalty programs have laid the foundation for the phenomenon of gamification. But the real revolution comes from the enormous opportunity presented by the web. Indeed, the Internet makes it possible to gamify more easily, more quickly and by always reaching more people.

Gamification: the Fields of Application

The fields of application of gamification are vast. All domains can use it. The objectives of the gamification are identical to the objectives of the business whatever they may be: better learning, increased performance, more sales, increased collaboration or anything else. And these goals are accomplished by using the data that users generate to motivate them, engage them and direct actions.

In fact, in businesses, the services that will most use gamification are marketing, to increase customer engagement and sales management, which will use the game mechanics to encourage salespeople to better sell.

An important element of corporate gamification, and especially for salespeople, is to give specific goals, real-time feedback, rewards for each task completed, and a community to challenge people and collaborate.

Today, companies such as LinkedIn, Nike and Air France use gamification to improve the customer experience, retain them and motivate their employees.

Gamification is therefore an assembly of game mechanics to encourage users of a service or the employees of a company to engage more in an activity.

Incentive’s animation platform allows you to help your teams surpass and keep them motivated all year round by using gamification techniques to set up your business challenges.